THE MUTLEY CREW: PLAYING SERIOUS GAMES FOR FUN

Dee Apps finds some weird things in her job. A monkey's placenta. Live
turtles. Donkey meat.

She and her beagle Jessie have been a team for seven years, sniffing out
plants, animals and other banned substances regularly smuggled through
Sydney's international airport.

Ms Apps supervises the detector dog unit of the Australian Quarantine and
Inspection Service at the airport, and with Federal Budget increases
fuelled by the threat of foot and mouth, her team will expand from 11 to 16
beagles within 18 months.

The first two newcomers were on duty yesterday after eight weeks of
intensive training.

There are four types of working dog at the airport, operated by three
branches of government. The Australian Customs Service (ACS) uses labradors
to detect drugs; the Australian Protective Service (APS) employs labradors
to detect firearms and explosives; while AQIS, the quarantine service,
employs beagles in the baggage collection areas and larger cross-breeds in
the freight and mail areas.

The beagles, she says, are "passive dogs", trained "to sit beside
passengers' bags when they find something".

The larger dogs - usually rescued from pounds - are "active response dogs".
They "indicate they have found something by scratching at parcels or bags".

Beagles, introduced to Australian airports in 1992, are used because of
their nature .

"Some passengers might be scared of larger dogs," Ms Apps said. "The
beagles are small, they're cute, they're people friendly, but the main
thing is they've got great noses."

What has Jessie detected? "We've had live turtles in a passenger's bag.
Sometimes people, particularly Asians, don't realise they are not supposed
to bring them in. We had some donkey meat the other day, and some dog meat
stewed in special juices. We've also had monkey's placenta, and the sort of
things used in aphrodisiacs."

Doug Andrew, national training co-ordinator of the APS, has three labradors
at the airport, including his own, Ocoee. He can't reveal anti-terrorism
procedures, but says the dogs can "detect explosives and other related
items such as firearms". The labradors were introduced in 1998 as part of a
pre-Olympics upgrade.

"Before that we used German shepherds, but labradors are more efficient,"
he said. "The travelling public more readily accept them. They associate
German shepherds with attack dogs."

The final group are the 13 labradors employed by the ACS. Anthony Wheatley,
the training co-ordinater, says Customs dogs are trained to zero in on
"heroin, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and ice". But they are not given drugs
as part of their training.

'The dogs have a very strong retrieval instinct," he said. "What we do is
give them a rolled-up cotton towel which is saturated in a drug odour. The
dogs get to retrieve the towel and then we'll play a game of tug o' war.

"Gradually the towel is hidden in more and more difficult hiding places
until the dog learns that if it detects the odour it gets to play a game."